Apparently it was 3m high and about a 20m section fell. Brick walls are very nasty things when they fall over, more likely to if the wall is inadequately supported. Strong winds today were the last straw for this wall. The wall was here, surrounding the old CUB Brewery site. An old and long wall with quite likely poor support. It's very lucky that only three people were impacted.

Try dropping one brick onto your head from an outstretched arm above your head, then imagine a whole wall collapsing onto you from twice that height! What the hell was this wall doing there?

I kept hearing quotes on the news along the lines of "the victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time", as if they were to blame in some way

Sorry.... this dangerously unstable wall was in the wrong place - right next to a public thoroughfare. When did "the world's most liveable city" suddenly become a third-world country with no Public & OH&S standards??? "Freak gust of wind" my foot - Grocon are in deep !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!(but I'm sure their lawyers are already onto it)

The wall from my understanding was heritage listed so they could not knock it down, but the wind picked up quite strongly for a good while yesterday afternoon. Strong enough to make the big bin at my work roll in to the bollards at the front entrance from the car park.

Just listened to the Planning Minister being interviewed by Neil Mitchell... Turns out the wall wasn't heritage listed. It, however, was a feature of the property as it was a remnant of the original structure built over 100 yrs ago. The wall has been free standing like this since 1987. ( I think the site has been awaiting development since then).So sad....

Normally a single-brick wall must be built with piers at certain spacings. This is what holds the wall up.

Without such piers the wall is a severe public hazard, particularly if old; particularly if it's 3m high. Some walls do get built without such piers. In my opinion they should be demolished at the first opportunity. It will be very interesting to learn whether this old wall had these piers, or whether it was an old unsupported single-brick structure that had been left as the 'fence' to their property. A time-bomb waiting for the right gust of wind.

As I understand it, the interior of the building was demolised something like 20 years ago. The building owner was required to preserve the exterior walls, including making sure they had proper support. Seems like they failed

True that a brick dropped from a height of 3m can be a serious hit. But still, to get killed needs to be a pretty solid hit on the head. Given how a brick wall would collapse, if the victim was close to the base of the wall and reacted by tucking against the wall, most of the bricks would have passed overhead or not have the energy of a 3m free fall. If the victim was a little further out on the footpath, the head may have been spared. Very unfortunate and sad outcome. Hopefully the building industry would learn from it and there won't be any repeats.

kukamunga wrote:Grocon owned this 3m wall. They built and/or own the tallest buildings in Melbourne, and want to build taller. Stand back, folks.....

i've noticed a disturbing trend for some people to exploit personal losses of others for their own political or ideological gain. aside from having nothing to do with cycling, it would be better to wait for the full facts to be established, before pointing fingers, even at union-busting privately owned companies.